The Killers were always bound for arena-level stardom, one felt, thanks to their gold-dust blend of attractive pop choruses, a certain down to earth authenticity as unembellished alternarockers in the traditional vein and a true talent for sheer, unalloyed blandness where it’s really necessary.

An attorney for three members of the Pussy Riot punk band says she has appealed the verdict of a Moscow court that sentenced the women to two years each in jail.

If you ask me...

Having made her name following a Sandy Denny tribute concert in 2008, Mary Epworth spent four years revitalising the kind of psychedelic pop singer the late 60s created so well. The resulting feral stomp of ‘Black Doe’ was play-listed at 6 Music and Radio 2 and introduced a fiery raw talent.  

'Prince has a knack for really funky stuff on a drum machine'

New bands should take top billing at the big festivals, says Emily Mackay

The press notes describe this baroque, Scandi girl band as purveyors of "fairground burlesque" and, accordingly, this first UK release is an aural Waltzer, exhilarating and nauseous.

Still based in the North-east of England, brothers David and Peter Brewis are on album number four now while still denying that Field Music is a band at all.

New Year Honours: The Arts

As with the Radiohead album, New Blood finds Peter Gabriel getting a second bite at his own material – in this case, continuing the orchestral re-arrangement approach applied to the cover versions of last year's Scratch My Back.

We7, the music streaming service backed by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel, has secured a new round of funding which will kick-start its expansion into Europe.

Smiling with beatific rapture and throwing his arms wide open like a man here to save souls, Jonathan Donahue swigs red wine from a bottle as he arrives on a stage lit by candles.

Peter Gabriel's typically ambitious and playful notion of swapping cover versions with admired peers resulted in Scratch My Back, his 2010 album of stately interpretations of Radiohead, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire and others. Tonight's show with the New Blood Orchestra applies the same reflective approach to Gabriel's own songbook. They show consistent conscience, expressed in a voice of gravelly, intellectual English soul.